Development and validation of an in vitro 3D model of NASH with severe fibrotic phenotype.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis represents a significant and rapidly growing unmet medical need. The development of novel therapies has been hindered in part, by the limitations of existing preclinical models. There is a strong need for physiologically relevant and liver fibrosis models that are characterized by better translational predictability.

Cloning and expression of the human galanin receptor GalR2.

Galanin is a peptide hormone which modulates a wide variety of physiological processes, including secretion, muscle contraction, cognitive function, the reproductive axis, and feeding. Two galanin receptor subtypes, GalR1 and GalR2, have been cloned; however, for GalR2 only the rat sequence has been reported in the literature. Our cloning of human GalR2 reveals its amino acid sequence to be 85% identical to rat GalR2 and 39% identical to human GalR1.

Conversion of a silencer into an enhancer: evidence for a co-repressor in dorsal-mediated repression in Drosophila.

The dorsal (dl) protein gradient determines patterns of gene expression along the dorsal-ventral axis of the Drosophila embryo. dl protein is at peak levels in ventral nuclei of the embryo where it activates some genes (twist and snail) and represses others [zerknullt (zen), decapentaplegic and tolloid]. It is a member of the rel family of transcription factors and interacts with specific DNA sequences in the regulatory regions of its target genes.

[Nucleotide sequence of the barley C-hordein gene].

The nucleotide sequence of barley C-hordein gene lambda CH4 and its flanking regions of 2820 bp length was determined. The gene contains no introns and codes for 310 amino acid long polypeptide. The 94% of the deduced amino acid sequence of the mature protein (291 amino acids) is made up of a repeating octapeptide motiff, PQQPEPQQ, which is repeated throughout the peptide chain between a unique 12 amino acid long NH2 terminal and a unique 6 amino acid long COOH-terminal end.